Nikki Haley on Corporations

My parents built business into a multimillion dollar company

I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every single day how blessed we were to live in this country.

They loved the fact that only in America, we could be as successful as we wanted
to be and nothing would stand in our way. My parents started a business out of the living room of our home and, 30-plus years later, it was a multimillion dollar company.

But there wasn't a single day that was easy and there wasn't a single day my Mom and Dad didn't put everything they had into making that business a success.

So, President Obama, with all due respect, don't tell me that my parents didn't build their business.

Government makes it harder for struggling small business

[My mom's gift shop was] a small business trying to compete with giant departments stores. But I also noticed how hard it was to make a dollar and how easy it was for government to take it away. Government had its hands in literally every aspect of our
business. Even as a teenager, that really bothered me. Government charged sales tax to our customers, it charged property tax on the building we were in, it taxed the equipment inside the building, and it charged us income tax on what we took in.
We were struggling just to survive, and government was making it harder, not easier.

In that store, poring over those books, I learned lessons that shaped me for life. By virtue of hard work and sheer will, my mother built the gift shop in our living
room into a multimillion-dollar high end clothing store. And I learned that small businesses like ours are the engines that create jobs and grow the economy. Government is the deadweight we all drag behind us.

OpEd: Business-friendliness starts with competitive taxes

I hammered other issues as well, first and foremost jobs. South Carolina had 12% unemployment at the time. My mantra was "We can no longer pass government-friendly legislation: we need to pass business-friendly legislation."
We needed to take better care of the 95% of our economy that was small businesses. I asked voters to put themselves in the shoes of a small-business owner: What would you look for before starting a business in South Carolina?
We needed to create a more business-friendly environment, and that started with a good, competitive tax structure.

As an accountant, I could see that we had one of the most complicated, cobbled-together tax systems in the county.
The Department of Revenue administered 32 taxes, but only 3 of them were responsible for over 90% of the state's revenue. The rest were just adding layers of bureaucracy and killing jobs.

Government creates conditions; entrepreneurs create jobs

In my first 9 months as governor, we announced over 15,000 new jobs in South Carolina. I say "announced" because government doesn't create jobs. Government can only create the conditions that allow entrepreneurs to create jobs. South Carolina is a
right-to-work state for precisely that purpose--we've seen the job-killing effects of forced-unions laws. I support keeping taxes low on individuals and small businesses because when businesses have extra cash they create jobs.
I've fought Washington regulations, not out of ideology of politics but because they kill jobs.

If Congress and the president were serious about putting Americans back to work, they would declare a moratorium on new federal regulations immediately.

The government doesn't create jobs. The private sector creates jobs. The only thing government can do is influence the environment in which jobs will either be created or be destroyed.

Reduce red tape; time is money

As we focus on lowering our unemployment rate in South Carolina, we will hone in on ways to improve the business environment in our state. Every one of my cabinet directors understands that his or her job is to reduce the amount of red-tape placed on our
businesses. In the business world, time is money--if government is costing our small businesses time, it is costing them money. That's unacceptable. The heart of our economy is and always will be our small businesses. If we give them cash flow, if we giv
them profit margins, they aren't going on vacation--they will use those dollars to hire people, to invest back in our state. And it will be our people, and South Carolina's economy, that benefit. We have spoken some about moving forward with one vision.
To the great credit of those in this room, in the seven short days I have been governor, we have made great progress.

Eliminate business taxes, starting with corporate income tax

The Haley Administration will prioritize the elimination of business income taxes, starting with eliminating the corporate income tax. Annually, South Carolina collects just over $260 million in corporate income taxes, representing only about 4.5% of the
General Fund. Our tax system has been band-aided to saddle some business with a greater burden than others. By leaving a quarter of a billion dollars in the private sector, we will enable South Carolina's businesses to grow.